GOVT MOVE ON AMEDMENT OF
LABOUR LAWS--
DESIGN TO IMPOSE
SLAVERY
Tapan Sen
The
one year rule of ‘Modi Sarkar’ has been disastrous for the working class. Soon
after coming to power the BJP led NDA government initiated hectic moves to
bring whole sale anti worker amendments to labour laws to satisfy the
employers. These amendments are intended to push out vast majority of even the
small section of the working class in our country enjoying some forms of legal
protection, out of the purview of labour laws. This was not unexpected. The big
national and multinational corporations invested thousands of crores of rupees
during the last Parliament elections and left no stone unturned to ensure that
the BJP comes to power at the centre. Now it is payback time for the
government! Every day, here in the country or on foreign soil, the government
is unashamedly exhibiting its determination to serve its corporate masters.
In
essence, these labour law amendments whether by the government of India or by
different state governments led by the BJP ruled Rajasthan government, are
aimed at empowering the employers to ‘hire and fire’ workers at their sweet
will. They enable the employers to declare closures/ shut downs and retrench/
lay off workers as well as to resort to mass scale contractorisation. They
would push more than seventy percent of the industrial establishments in the
country and their workers out of the purview of almost all labour laws. The
employers will get a free hand to further intensify their exploitation and
squeeze down the workers.
Labour
Laws –More Violated than Implemented
As
is well known, labour laws in our country are more violated than implemented.
This is the experience of workers in most of the workplaces across the country.
More than sixty percent of the country’s workforce in the organised sector is
denied even statutory minimum wages and social security benefits like PF and
ESI. Contract workers under many nomenclatures are employed in permanent,
perennial and continuous jobs in total violation of the Contract Labour
(Regulation & Abolition) Act. Even the government run establishments and
departments are not free from this deplorable practice. Around 50% of workers
in the public sector and 70% in the private sector are contract workers. Other
laws pertaining to working hours, overtime work, safety at workplace etc are
also being flagrantly violated. In many industrial and service units, 12 hours
work without overtime wage has become the norm today. Even where overtime wages
are paid, they are far below the statutory double rate wages.
In
the background of the global crisis and the following gloom in our country’s
economy, the entire burden is being passed on to the workers. Closures, lay
off, shut downs have become widespread. Majority of them are, however, not
officially reported. But even those officially reported figures are alarming. According to the official reports, more than
19% of the 13.70 lakh registered companies in the country have closed down by
the end of December 2014. 56008 out of the 2.79 lakhs registered companies in
Maharashtra, 41629 out of the 1.78 lakh registered companies in West Bengal and
41458 out of the 2.57 lakh registered companies in Delhi downed their shutters.
Most of these closures/ shut downs and resultant retrenchments involving
several middle and large enterprises are illegal. These include MNCs like
Maruti Suzuki in Haryana, Nokia and Foxconn in Tamil Nadu, Jessop, Hind Motors,
and several jute mills and tea gardens in West Bengal etc. Yet no action has
been taken against any of these owners. They enjoy the blessings and patronage
of the government.
Suppression
of labour rights and inhuman loot and plunder of working people are integral
parts of the neoliberal economic policy regime. Under these policies being
implemented by successive governments at the centre during the last more than
two decades, the share of wages in the industrial sector have been continuously
declining from around 30% in 1982-83 to 12.9% in 2012-13 while the share of
profits increased from around 20% to 50% during the same period, even while
labour productivity has been continuously increasing. According to the Annual
Report of the Labour Ministry, labour productivity in India measured in terms
of GDP per person employed per hour is USD 4.17, i.e. around 250.20 or Rs 2000
per day. The extent of exploitation of the workers becomes glaringly visible
when this is compared to the average statutory minimum wages prevalent in
different states/ sectors.
Under
neoliberal regime, a jungle raj is being unleashed at workplaces all over the
country. It is not without reason that, today, more than ninety percent of
disputes between employers and workers throughout the country relate to only
implementation of labour laws and nothing else. In this twenty first century we
are living in such an obnoxious situation in a so called civil society that
workers face victimisation and oppression from both the employers and
government when they agitate for implementation of laws passed by the
Parliament!
It
is to make the state sponsored violation of labour laws hassle free and smooth
that the government seeks to curb and suppress trade unions using the state
machinery. Forming trade unions and registering them are becoming increasingly
difficult, even impossible in some states. Thousands of applications for
registration of trade unions are gathering dust in the labour departments in
almost all the states, in brazen violation of the Trade Union Act.
With
the present BJP government coming to power at the centre, this has assumed an
even more aggressive character. The labour law amendments and the bundling them
together into Labour Codes are all measures to legalise what till today are
legal violations and attacks on the hard won rights of the workers. This
intention is sought to be masked with attractive slogans like ‘job creation’,
‘simplification’, ‘rationalisation’, ‘ease of doing business’, ‘attracting
investment’ etc to deceive the gullible. It is not only necessary for the working
class to understand the real nature of these labour law amendments and their
implications on their working conditions. It is also necessary to expose the
myths behind these slogans among the people and gain their support in the
struggle against not only the anti worker labour law amendments but also the
anti people neoliberal policies.
BJP
government in Rajasthan leads the way
Rajasthan
government all along had a very bad reputation about labour law enforcement.
Thousands of complaints of violation of all labour laws, related to minimum
wages, contract labour, PF, ESI, working hours, unlawful retrenchment etc have
been piling up for years without any redressal in almost all the industrial
areas in the state.
In
August 2014, the BJP government in Rajasthan has amended the Industrial
Disputes Act, Factories Act, Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act and Apprentices
Act. Several atrocious anti worker provisions have been incorporated in
these amended Acts. The BJP led government at the centre has recommended these
to all the state governments as a model to attract investments.
The
amended Rajasthan Industrial Disputes Act empowers the employers to retrench
workers at will, without prior permission of the government in all
establishments employing up to 300 workers. It denies trade unions in any
establishment the right to represent the grievances/demands of the workers
unless they have at least 30% membership among the workers of the concerned
establishment. Moreover, almost all provisions protecting the interests of
contract labour, particularly the responsibility of the principal employer,
have been removed. The definition of ‘go slow’ has been widened in the Act,
enabling the employer to blame the workers for any failure in production or
operation. In an overwhelming majority of industries in Rajasthan, the
employers are now free to retrench the workers at their will; they can freely
engage contract workers in permanent and perennial jobs and denying them all
rights to statutory wages and social security; they are free to victimise
workers as per their whims and fancies.
The
amendments to Factories Act has increased the threshold limit of employment for
the factories operating without power from 20 to 40; for the factories
operating with power the threshold level has been raised from 10 to 20. Under
the amended Act, the court cannot take cognisance of any complaint related to
violation of law against the employer without prior written permission from the
state government. On the other hand, punishments for violation of labour law
have been relaxed. Thus changes a large number of factories and workers have
been pushed out of the coverage of the Factories Act.
The
amendments to Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act also follow the
same line. All contractors employing up to 49 workers have been removed from
the purview of its coverage. In effect,
this means that almost all, if not all, contract workers are thrown out of the
coverage of almost all labour laws. It also encourages the employers to convert
the entire workforce in any establishment into contract workers.
The amendment to
Apprenticeship Act provides scope for the employers to replace regular workers,
even contract workers with apprentices by paying them only ‘stipend’, a small
fraction of the wages and forcing them to work for several years without giving
them the certificate.
In
sum, these amendments to labour laws give the capitalist class total freedom to
loot and exploit the workers. They are meant to legalise and legitimise all
those attacks of the employers on workers which were till now against the law.
They will establish a jungle raj at workplaces. As a result of these
amendments, 7252 factories employing less than 300 workers each, out of total
7622 factories in Rajasthan come under the ‘hire & fire’ regime. All of the
more than two lakhs contract workers are thrown out of the coverage of all
labour laws including Contract Labour (R&A) Act. At least 70 per cent
factories and their workers are removed from coverage of Factories Act.
Several
other state governments including Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh,
Haryana etc have followed in the footsteps of Rajasthan government and
willingly implemented the recommendations of the government of India. They have
passed the bills amending the labour laws and sent for the assent of the
President. Several other state governments including in Himachal Pradesh,
Haryana, Uttar Pradesh etc have announced their intentions to do the same.
Moves
by the Central government
The
BJP government at the centre has taken up labour law amendments as of topmost
priority on the plea of attracting investment in its ‘Make in India’ campaign
and climb up the ladder of ‘ease of doing business index’.
It
has been posting its proposals to amend the labour laws in the website without
any prior discussion with the trade unions. Two Acts – the Apprenticeship Act
and the Labour Laws (Exemption from furnishing returns and maintaining of
registers by certain establishments) have already been passed by the
Parliament.
Apprenticeship
Act
The
government of India has already amended the Apprenticeship Act. The definition
of ‘workers’, under the amended Act, has been changed to include contract
workers, casual workers and daily rated workers. This allows deployment of more
apprentices as a ratio (30%) of total workers in the establishment. It provides
enhanced flexibility to the employers to decide new trades for apprentices. It
encourages and facilitates the employers to replace contract/ casual/ temporary
workers and even regular workers with comparatively low paid apprentices in the
production process and thereby reduce the overall labour cost. The section
providing the penalty of imprisonment for violation has been totally deleted.
Penalty for violation is now limited to a fine of Rs 500. The impact of this
amendment can be understood when we note that already the practice of using
apprentices/ trainees in regular production jobs is widely prevalent including
in major automobile companies like Maruti Suzuki.
This transfers all
authority from the Central Council to the State Apprenticeship Council under
the state governments. Practical shop floor level training of apprentices has
been outsourced with a portion of the cost being borne by the government.
Labour
Laws (Exemption from Furnishing Returns and Maintaining of Registers by Certain
Establishments) Amendment Bill 2011
The
amended Act raises the threshold level employment from 19 to 40 for any
establishment to be treated as small establishment. On the pretext of
simplifying the procedures for filing returns and maintaining registers, the
amended Act virtually exempts these establishments from 16 major labour laws
including Factories Act, Payment of Wages Act, Minimum Wages Act, the Weekly Holidays
Act, Plantation Labour Act, Contract Labour (R & A) Act, Building and Other
Construction Workers’ Act, the Payment of Bonus Act, the Equal Remuneration Act
etc. At the present level of technology, large number of establishments having
large capital investment and high level of turnover and profit employ less than
40 workers. According to some estimates, more than 72% of factories in the
country will now find it much easier to violate all these 16 labour laws with
impunity subjecting workers to more fierce exploitation.
Factories
Act
Through
amendment of section 56 of the Factories Act, the spread-over of time period
within which a worker can be detained for getting his work for eight hours
including lunch recess is proposed to be increased from 10.5 hours to 12 hours
if state govt is so satisfied. As per existing provision increase of the
spread-over from 10.5 hrs to 12 hrs could be done only when the Chief Inspector
of factories would, giving specific reasons in writing, allow such increase. Such concurrence by Chief Inspector would
naturally require due inspection process involving all concerned. Following the
amendment, the State Govts can straightway increase the spread-over to 12 hrs
without the concurrence of Inspector. Provision for ascertaining actual and
technical necessity through inspection for increasing the spread-over to 12 hrs
is replaced by “satisfaction of the state govt or in that matter the
bureaucracy” making a bigger way for manipulation and manoeuvres by employers. Increase in spread- over would allow the
employers to detain the workers longer hours in the workplace without any extra
remuneration and will add to their harassment.
Through
amendment of section 64 and 65, the existing limitation on overtime work of 50
hours per quarter has been straightway increased to 100 hours and through
provision of exemptions by state govt through the Chief Inspector such overtime
work can be extended to 125 hours in so called “public interest”. This
amendment along with the enhancement of spread-over period will lead to
harassment of workers and make way for victimisation. Secondly enhancement of
overtime work will directly affect the employment generation as well as will
enable the employer to economise in labour cost. Through amendment of section
66, restriction and regulation on deployment of woman workers in night shift is
being sought to be liberalised and relaxed.
And
the most retrograde of all above, is that the Amendment Bill proposed to
empower the state governments to freely increase the threshold level
employment, for the factory to be covered by Factories Act, subject to a
ceiling of forty. Given the race between the states to attract investment, this
is most likely to promote an ugly competition between the state governments to appease
the capitalist lobby by pushing majority section of the workers out of the
coverage of the labour laws.
What
will be the implications of these changes for the workers? According to the
Report of Annual Survey of Industries 2011 -1 2, published in 2014, 125301
factories, or 71.31% if the total 175710 factories in the country, employ less
than 50 workers. Most of them employ less than 40 workers. All these factories
and their workers would go out of the coverage of Factories Act due to the
increase in threshold limit of employment. Thus overwhelming majority of the
total 13429956 workers including 3610056 contract workers would be impacted by
the amendments to the Factories Act.
The
Small Factories and Other Establishments (Regulation of Employment &
Conditions of Services) Bill 2014
The BJP led government posted a Bill titled the
Small Factories and Other Establishments (Regulation of Employment &
Conditions of Services) Bill 2014 in
the Labour Ministry’s website. Later it was sent to the central trade unions
for their comments. This was later followed with a tripartite discussion. CITU
has totally rejected the proposal.
This bill is even more atrocious. Irrespective of
usage of power or not, all the factories employing up to 40 workers are termed
as small factories and pushed out of the purview of the Factories Act. Not only
that. All the small factories so defined will also be out of purview of 14
basic labour laws viz., Factories Act, Industrial Disputes Act, Industrial
Employment (Standing Orders) Act, Payment of Wages Act, Minimum Wages Act,
Payment of Bonus Act, Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act,
Employees Provident Fund Act, Employees State Insurance Act, Maternity Benefit
Act, Equal Remuneration Act, Employees Compensation Act, Inter State Migrant
Workmen( Regulation of Employment & Conditions of Service) Act, Shops &
Establishment Act, Child Labour(Prohibition & Regulation) Act etc. This
means workers in the establishments employing up to 40, which constitute around
80% of country’s industrial workforce will be at the mercy of the employers in
respect of every aspect of the working conditions and employment rights from
working hours, safety, social security, trade union rights and grievance
redressal, equal remuneration, maternity benefit, in short, they will be thrown
into a condition of virtual slavery.
Latest
Move of combining labour laws into Labour Code
Recently the government of India has started a
process of comprehensive dismantling of whatever minimal protection the labour
laws were providing to the workers. It may be remembered that the attempts to
change the labour laws, particularly the Industrial Disputes Act, at the behest
of the employers date back to the seventies and have been going on for decades
now. These have intensified under the neoliberal regime. However the
governments could not succeed till now because of the stiff resistance from the
working class and the trade union movement.
Now the BJP led government has changed tack. Instead
of attempting amendments to such basic individual laws as the Industrial
Disputes Act which would evoke strong united resistance from all sections of
the workers, it has decided to bundle up 44 labour laws into 5 Labour Codes
under the pretext of rationalisation and simplification. Two such Labour Codes,
the Labour Code on Wages bill and the Labour Code on Industrial Relations have
been placed on public domain by the Labour Ministry. These aim to totally
disarm the working class and prevent it from getting organised and fight for
its rights. At the same time the employers are being gifted with more powers to
exploit the workers and suppress any resistance.
Labour
Code on Wages Bill
This Bill seeks to combine four wage related
legislations viz., Minimum Wages Act, Payment of Wages Act, Payment of Bonus
Act and Equal Remuneration Act into one labour code.
It is aimed at converting the law virtually into a toothless
piece of legislation making enforcement and implementation casuality. The
concept of inspection for the purpose of enforcement has been given a go-bye as
inspectors will be replaced by facilitators. The facilitators shall conduct
inspection only in accordance with the scheme notified by the appropriate
government from time to time. Thus the binding character of the provisions of
inspection/enforcement mechanism is totally diluted making other provisions of
the law practically meaningless to workers.
Some of other retrograde features of proposed wage code bill are the following:
The Equal Remuneration Act has been totally diluted
to restricting gender discrimination only to payment of wages, doing away with other
types of discrimination related to recruitment, conditions of service such as
promotion, vocational training etc.
Having ratified ILO convention no 111 it is
obligatory for the government of India to end discrimination in respect of
wages and conditions of service between different sets of workers doing same or
equal value of work. In the face of massive contractorisation at the
workplaces, this issue is most crucial for the hundreds of lakhs of contract
workers across the country. The wage code bill should have made provisions for
ending such discrimination. Instead, the government is going ahead just in the
opposite direction to further aggravate such discrimination. Amendments to
Contract Labour (R&A) Act in the same lines as the Rajasthan and other
state governments will deny all contract workers in the private sector and
large sections in PSUs the coverage of almost all labour laws. The employees in
more than 80% of factory establishments and more than 90% workforce in the
services sector will be totally under the tyranny of the employers’ class.
The definition of employer and employee and also
‘competent authority’ in the proposed wage code bill is vague giving room for
misinterpretation to the disadvantage of the workers.
The concept of schedule of industries/establishments
has been done away with in the proposed wage code bill. Does it mean that the
minimum wages, to be decided by either state or central government, will be the
same for all industries? There is no answer. Further, according to the bill, minimum
wages will be decided by the state government. Does it mean that the
responsibility of minimum wages, so long vested with the government of India in
respect of certain sectors ensuring a national level uniformity, will now be
transferred to state governments? If so, what will happen to national level
parity of wages so long prevalent in these sectors? The bill remains totally
vague on these aspects.
The bill provides for advisory boards for recommending
minimum wage, which appears not to be mandatory. But it is totally silent on
the consensus recommendation of the 44th Indian Labour Conference on
minimum wages. The 44th ILC reiterated the formula for fixing minimum
wages as recommended by the 15th Indian Labour Conference along with
direction of Supreme Court in Raptakos & Brett case. For the sake of
fairness and propriety, this wage fixation formula should have been
incorporated in the Wage Code Bill. But this government, committed as it is, to
the employers and corporates shamelessly and deliberately ignored this aspect. Wage
fixation has been left totally to the arbitrary discretion of the state
governments.
Governments have also been vested with the power to
make any changes in the time limit for payment of wages. The draconian
provision for deducting eight days wages for one-day strike has been retained
in the proposed bill, if the strike is considered illegal by the government. And,
no strike can ever be legal, if the proposals made in the Labour Code on
Industrial Relations are enacted.
The right of the workers or their unions to question
the accuracy of the balance sheet of the company or demand clarifications, to
ascertain ‘allocable surplus’ while bargaining for bonus above the minimum
level, which is available in the present Bonus Act is totally done away with in
the proposed labour code on wages. It also empowers the employers not to
enclose any information contained in the balance sheet, if they so want. This
is nothing but abrogation of workers’ right to collective bargaining in respect
of bonus by the government.
Labour
Code on Industrial Relations Bill
This bill merges three existing Acts - Trade Unions
Act 1926, Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act 1946, and the Industrial
Disputes Act 1947.
The basic purpose is to provide a comprehensive
instrument for the employers’ class to suppress the workers, drastically curb
workers’ rights to protest and agitate and press for their grievances, to prune
trade union rights to the extent of making it almost impossible even to form a
trade union. It is nothing but a direct
affront on the rights to freedom of associations and collective bargaining as
envisaged in the ILO core conventions no 87 and 98. It is a blatant attempt by
this government to ensure a trade union free workplace for its corporate
masters.
According to this code on industrial relations, it
is necessary for a trade union to have 10% of the workers in an establishment
or industry or 100 workers, whichever is less, as applicants for registration. Although it provides for granting of
registration of union within 60 days from the date of receipt of the
application subject to application being in order, it vests wide discretionary
powers with the Registrar under section 10 of the bill to grant or not to grant
or reject registration. Wide powers have also been vested with the registrar
for cancellation of registration of any trade union.
All the office bearers of the trade unions in the
organised sector must be persons actually working in that industry. No outsider
is allowed. Here office bearer means committee member also. As per existing
law, one third of the office bearers could be non-worker organisers/whole-timers.
For unorganised sector, not more than two non-worker/whole-timers (instead of
existing 50% of the committee members) will be allowed to become office bearer
of the union. Any office bearer of a
registered trade union could be disqualified if he or she is already office
bearer of 10 unions. Office bearers of trade union can also be disqualified by
Industrial Tribunal but criteria of such decision by Industrial Tribunal has
not been spelt out giving scope for arbitrary decision.
Despite so many restrictions in formation of trade
union in an establishment, granting of recognition and negotiating right to the
trade union continues to remain the absolute prerogative of the employer. The
demand of the trade unions for making recognition of trade union mandatory in
all establishments has been totally ignored.
Right to hire and fire has been given to employer in
all establishments employing up to 300 workers. In these establishments,
employers are not required to take prior permission of the government for
retrenching workers or closing down establishments. This means more than 90 per
cent of the workforce in the factory sector and almost all the contract workers in
manufacturing sector will come under ‘hire and fire’ regime. They will be at the mercy of the
employers in respect to their employment. This will ultimately impact all other
lawful rights of the workers. The employers can ignore or deny these rights as
per their sweet will.
The retrenchment compensation, of course, is
proposed to be enhanced to 45 days per year of service rendered. But this means
nothing to a worker losing his livelihood owing to the lust for profit of the
employer. Even in establishments employing more than 300, the appropriate
government has been vested with all powers to exempt them from their obligation
of taking prior permission for retrenchment and closure. Can criminality go any
further?
This labour code on industrial relations also
empowers the employers to unilaterally change the service conditions of the
workers. They are required to give 21 days’ notice for making such change which
is provided by the existing Act also. What is new in this bill is that after 21
days, the employers can unilaterally impose those changes even during the
pendency of conciliation proceedings in the labour department or case in
Tribunal on those changes based on disputes raised by the union/worker.
The bill imposes several restrictions amounting to
virtual ban on strikes and collective agitations by the workers. The right to
strike and collective agitation by the workers will be snatched away. As per
existing Act, workers/unions are required to give 14/21 days notice for going
on strike in public utility services. According to this bill, six weeks’ notice
is required to be served before going on strike in all establishments whether
public utility services or not. Conciliation proceedings will be deemed to have
started on the date on which strike notice is received by the conciliation
officer, irrespective of whether conciliation has been called by him or not.
Workers cannot go for strike during pendency of conciliation proceeding and up
to seven days after conclusion of conciliation. This makes it virtually
impossible for the workers and their unions to go on a legal strike. The Bill
also proposes to introduce ban on agitations like go-slow, demonstration etc
during pendency of conciliation proceedings. Definition of strike has also been
arbitrarily extended for casual leave availed by fifty percent or more workers
in the establishment.
Huge penalties ranging from Rs 20000 to Rs 50000 or
imprisonment of one month or both are sought to be imposed on workers for
participating in a so called illegal strike. Incitation or helping a strike
action too attracts a huge fine ranging from Rs 25000/- to Rs 50000/- or one
month imprisonment or both.
While retaining the employers’ prerogative to
recognise or not to recognise the union or negotiate with it on issues that
have been raised, the bill severely restricts the workers’ right to access
justice through adjudication/ tribunal etc. According to the section 95 (4) of
the bill, workers’ side would be entitled to legal representation in any
proceedings before a tribunal, only with the consent of the employers. As per
section 95(3), no party to a dispute shall be entitled to be represented by a
legal practitioner in any conciliation proceedings or in proceedings before a
court. These restrictions are only designed to put the workers and their unions
into difficulty.
Restrictions are imposed on the Tribunal itself in
the matter wording their awards. Section 70 of the bill provides that the award
of the Tribunal shall not contain any information obtained in the course of
investigation or enquiry which is not available otherwise than through evidence
given before the Tribunal, if the firm or company in question has made a
request in writing to that effect. This, while intruding upon the Right to
Information, would also create problem for the workers and their unions to
fight the case of appeal against the award of the Tribunal in higher court.
Further, section 58 restricts the power of Tribunal in the case on
discharge/dismissal of workers only to rely on materials on record and debarred
to take any fresh evidence in relation to the matter.
On the other hand, numerous provisions have been
incorporated on almost every aspect of industrial relations to empower the
appropriate governments to exempt the employers from whatever minimum
obligations they have even under the changed laws. For example, section 97 says
that if the appropriate government is satisfied that adequate provisions exist
for investigation and settlement of disputes within the establishment, it may
exempt the establishment from any obligations under the changed law. The government
can also exempt any establishment from the obligation of giving 60 days’ notice
for the closure and of providing compensation of 45 days’ per year of service
rendered for closure/ retrenchment and allow payment of only 3 months’ pay. The
government can also exempt even establishments employing more than 300 workers from
observance of procedures/ formalities/ obligations required under the law. However,
no consideration of any sort is shown for workers and trade unions.
This is how the present BJP led government seeks to
push the workers who produce the wealth of the nation and revenue for the
exchequer into slavery. If this government is not unashamedly corporate servile,
what is?
The Labour Ministry has called two formal tripartite
meetings to discuss these labour codes. All the central trade unions have
unanimously rejected the proposals, while the government and the employers’
organisations have ganged up as usual in support.
Onslaught
on PF and ESI
The social security rights of the workers provided
under the EPF and ESI Acts are also not spared by the present government, which
is determined to demolish and destroy these to favour the market forces.
Without even consulting the EPFO, the Finance
Minister announced in his Budget speech that Rs 6000 crores from EPF fund would
be utilised for general old age pension, which is totally unlawful as EPF funds
can only be utilised for the benefit of EPF subscribers. He also announced
government’s intention to make EPF optional in favour of the New Pension System
designed to utilise pension funds for speculation in stock market. Even before
this years’ budget is presented to the Parliament, the Finance Ministry
notified diversion of minimum 5% and up to 15% PF accumulation to stock market
totally ignoring the unanimous opposition from the entire workers’ group in the
Central Board of Trustees. Now the government has proposed to amend the EPF Act
to make EPF scheme optional for workers in favour of New Pension Scheme. While
all the trade unions rejected the proposals, the employers’ group totally
supported the project of looting the hard earned life time savings of the
workers.
Similarly the government has mooted a proposal to
amend the ESI Act to make ESI optional in favour of medical insurance. In their
eagerness to benefit the employers’ class the government totally ignored the
fact that ESI not only offers comprehensive medical benefits to the enrolled
workers and their dependents but also provides other benefits like cash
benefits in times of physical distress due to sickness, temporary or permanent
disability, and confinement for insured women. Dependents of insured persons
who die in industrial accidents, employment injuries or occupational hazards
are entitled to monthly pension under ESI. Whereas, medical insurance provides
medical benefits only for in patient treatment for the insured person limited
to the insured amount, ESI provides full medical benefits including out patient
treatment to the subscriber workers and their dependents for a nominal
subscription.
The main purpose behind these evil designs is to
provide business to the private insurance companies that have mushroomed owing
to the opening up of the insurance sector to private players, both national and
foreign, under the neoliberal policy regime. This was affected by amending the
Insurance Act. One misdeed is promoting another, in the process putting the
social security protection of lakhs of workers at stake.
Deceptive
ploy of Announcement of Social Security Scheme for Unorganised Sector
While aggressively pursuing their project for
dismantling the entire labour legislation and enforcement machinery, meant for
mainly the organized sector establishments, the government has been
unscrupulously trying to project itself as pro labour by announcing some
welfare and pension schemes for unorganised sector workers with great fan fare.
It has announced three such schemes, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana,
Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana and Atal Pension Yojana with media
blitzkrieg. Despite carrying the tags of Prime Minister and the name of a
former Prime Minister, the schemes are all contributory without any financial
support from the government. There is no
implementation machinery. And what are the schemes? Atal Pesion Yojana is the
old Swabalamban scheme introduced during the UPA-II regime with pension
guaranteed depending upon the contribution of the worker. Likewise, Pradhan
Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana are
modifications of already existing Aam Admi Bima Yojana. It is now expected that
the new schemes will replace the earlier schemes. None of those earlier schemes
could cover even an insignificant segment of 45 crore unorganised sector
workers. In a span of 8 years, the Rastriya Swayasthya Bima Yojana could
register only around 3.85 crore people, majority of who are from the unionised
segments of unorganised workers like construction, private transport etc.
Efficacy of these new schemes to benefit the unorganised sector workers are yet
to be seen.
Lie
Campaign to Befool People
The
irony is that such inhuman attacks on the working people are being sought to be
justified by the government through a total lie campaign putting Goebbels to
shame. It is being claimed that these changes in labour laws would attract
investment and generate employment. This in essence means that giving total
liberty to retrench workers will encourage the employers to employ more. This
has no basis and is contrary to all available evidence. The reality is just the
opposite. As has already been mentioned, labour laws in our country are more
violated than implemented. Despite this, during last three decades, employment
growth rate in organised sector continued to remain negligible. The period 2005-2010
witnessed the highest GDP growth rate at 8.5% annually on an average. But
employment growth rate collapsed from 2.7% during 2000 – 2005 to mere 0.7%
during 2005 - 10.
During
the entire three decades long neoliberal policy regime, the productivity of
labour in organised sector has consistently increased. But their share as wages
has gone down consistently in real terms. Along with this, the number of
regular employment in organised sector consistently declined. The number in the
unorganised sector has been consistently increasing reaching almost 90 per cent
of the total workforce in the country. What is more alarming is that the
permanent workers in the organised sector are increasing being replaced by contract and temporary workers
with working conditions similar to those in the unorganised sector. This indicates
that the employers in the organised sector have been seeking to drastically cut
down on their labour costs to maximise their profits even in the midst of the
economic slow down. They have been shifting to informal low paid employment
taking advantage of the unemployment among skilled and young workforce in the
country.
But
there is a limit to manage the slowdown and economic gloom when impoverishment
among the mass of populace got widened and deepened. So despite a low-wage
scenario throughout the country, manufacturing sector’s growth started dipping
since last couple of years reaching a negative figure in the last quarter of
the last financial year. This phenomenon explodes the myth that ‘hire &
fire’ regime and suppression of labour will lead to increase in employment.
This
is the reality. Not only India, but the entire world is witnessing the same
phenomenon. The World Employment Report published by ILO had once observed that
the empirical evidences of employment scenario show that the countries with
higher labour flexibility do not have any brighter performance in employment
generation either. Subsequent ILO observations year after year confirmed the
same reality. Hence the lie campaign
justifying the move for retrograde pro employer amendments in labour laws by
the Govt totally exposes their servility to the interests of corporate/big
business, both domestic and foreign.
In fact, such all out
onslaught on the working class and the bid to impose slavery on them is
integral to corporate sectors’ desperate bid to tackle the deepening crisis the
entire capitalist system is engulfed in; the present right-wing Govt in the
centre, as the most subservient instrument of the corporate lobby, both
domestic and foreign, is operating in that direction to perpetrate loot on
peoples’ livelihood and national assets and to weaken the working class
movement through such all out onslaught on workers’ rights and livelihood. What
could not be done during last six decades in respect of pro-employer amendment
in labour laws is being sought to be achieved by the Narendra Modi Govt in one
year’s time. Working class movement is being targeted to facilitate
hurdles-free crime on people and the nation.
United
Combat –the Need of the Hour
These
atrocious attacks on the working people of the country, who create wealth and
build the nation, on whose labour rests the profit of the employers should be
combated resolutely. The lie campaign by
the stooges of the capitalist class, the anti worker character of the
neoliberal policies and the politics behind these policies must be thoroughly
exposed.
It
is to resist and repulse these attacks on the working class that the united
trade union movement gave the call for a countrywide general strike on 2nd
September 2015. This strike must act as a strong warning to the BJP led
government that the working class of the country, which has a great history of
struggles and sacrifices, is not going to let these attacks pass. In its fight
against the attacks on its basic rights the working class has to seek and gain
the support of all sections of the people. Resistance to atrocious design of
the corporate-servile Govt to accelerate the loot on the workers, on the
people, on the national assets and the nation as a whole must be heightened by
rallying mass of the people in such resistance struggle.
May 2015
